


flamed-headed Robespierre

by simonsjumpers



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And the rest of the gang are all here too, Anne and Gilbert are journalists, Anne and Gilbert's Orphan Club, Anne goes rogue, Anne works for the newspaper, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, First Meetings, Gilbert works on the radio, Journalist Anne, Misunderstandings, Modern AU, Office flirting tbh, Radio Host Gilbert, Rivals, and Gilbert is HERE for it, flame-headed Robespierre strikes again
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23268556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simonsjumpers/pseuds/simonsjumpers
Summary: Anne gets a new job at Avonlea Media as a columnist for their newspaper and also gains a rival in Gilbert Blythe – the company's radio host.Modern AU"...There was also the fact that her desk meant she was within the eye line of Gilbert Blythe – who, every moment he wasn’t on the air, spent his time peering at her from all the way across the office. If he meant to tease her or distract her from her work, well, she wouldn’t let him."
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 9
Kudos: 62





	flamed-headed Robespierre

**Author's Note:**

> me: 'Welcome to Toronto' will be my last Anne fic, I have to get on with my life  
> corvid-19: THINK AGAIN 
> 
> (no proofreads/edits, enter at your own peril)

The first day of a new job is always the hardest, Anne reassured herself as she began the half-hour journey to Avonlea Media Outlet.

She hadn’t expected to get such a well-suited job straight out of university but it had been perfect timing that Avonlea had advertised the position of literature columnist for their newspaper department just days after her graduation. It felt like fate actually.

Fate or not. She remained incredibly nervous. This wasn’t her beloved college newspaper anymore – this was the real deal. Avonlea was by far PEI’s most valued institution and popular media outlet.

Her hands were tremoring on the steering wheel, Anne reached for the radio and turned it to distract herself from her worries.

“Oh the lengths I’ll go to just to get our listeners a good story,” the radio host was screaming, “800 feet in the air and I can see exactly how much waste Royal energy company is dumping into the lake.”

Anne listened in wonder at the report. She knew the story of course; she’d read about it in the paper. For a while, Avonlea had been investigating the Royal energy company but they hadn’t been able to prove the extent of their environmental neglect because they hadn’t been able to access their land. But now, it seemed the radio reporter had taken it upon himself to commandeer a hot air balloon and fly over the land and get the exposé.

Anne had only really read the Avonlea newspaper. She’d only gotten a car yesterday as a new-job gift from Matthew, despite Marilla’s protestations that he was spoiling her. So it was the first time she’d ever listened to the Avonlea radio station.

Now she knew why everyone raved about it. If the reporter was willing to pull crazy stunts like this, she wondered what else she’d been missing all this time.

“You heard it here first folks, there can be no more doubt now that the Royal energy company is polluting our land. I’m landing now with the proof we need to…”

The radio host paused for a few seconds, leaving dead air with only the sound of rushing wind filling it.

“You know, no one warned me just how quickly these balloons reach the ground. I’m going quite fast… really fast actually. I’ve got a feeling this isn’t how you’re meant to land these things. Uhhh… text into the station if you’ve got any experience in this because really I didn’t think about landing before I took off.”

Anne listened in horror as the radio host rambled on. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem scared at all, just thrilled at the adventure of it all.

Soon, from the radio she heard the balloon crash into the ground with an almighty thud, the radio hosts whoops of excitement and laughs could be heard over the calamity.

And despite the incredulous irresponsible journalism, Anne found her hands had stopped shaking.

* * *

The lobby was filled with the usual hustle and bustle of a media outlet and everyone moved as though they were on their fifth cup of coffee. Anne watched from the sofa the receptionist had told her to wait on. Apparently her department had sent someone down to meet her.

The lift doors open and out rushed a tall girl with raven dark hair all tangled up in a pair of large headphones. She spotted Anne and jogged over, sticking out her hand.

“Hello, you must be Anne.”

Anne shook the other girl’s hand heartily, she must have been the same age as Anne, if not a year or so older.

“Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you…”

“Diana,” the girl supplied, “Diana Barry, I work with the newspaper and the radio station. Think of me as your welcome buddy.”

“Well, it’s nice to feel so welcomed.”

Diana ushered her to the lift, “we’ll head straight up to the third floor. That’s where the radio and the paper is – it’s a shared office.”

* * *

The office itself was nicely decorated and filled with desks littered sporadically around the room.

“The tour begins now. Let’s head to your desk first, I requested it be next to mine.”

Diana looped her arm through Anne’s, and she immediately felt at home.

“So I do all the music for the radio, some of the technical stuff. I also write the music column; it’ll be next to yours in the paper.”

Diana led Anne over to a trio of desks by the windows. One empty, one filled neatly organised and decorated, and another with paper strewn all over it and a boy sat slumped in a chair.

“No progress on the exhibition story?” Diana asked the boy.

“It’s frustratingly slow,” the boy moaned, “who’s this?”

Anne smiled, “Anne Shirley-Cuthbert.”

“Anne is the new literature columnist,” Diana added, “this is Cole, he covers the arts.”

“Welcome to the fold.”

From across the room, the lift pinged open. Raucous applause filled the room as a young man walked into the office. He lifted his arms up in mock-celebration at the applause.

“Were you listening?” Diana turned to Cole.

“It was hard not to,” Cole sighed, dryly.

Anne looked between them, “who’s that?”

“ _That_ is Gilbert Blythe. He hosts the daytime radio show.”

Anne whipped her head back to Diana, “didn’t he just–”

“– crash a hot air balloon. Yes. He’s been after that story for weeks. I’m surprised that’s the only crazy stunt he’s pulled.”

Anne watched curiously as a crowd gathered around Gilbert. He looked just like she would expect a radio host to look – big smile and twinkly eyes.

“Will he get in trouble for the crash?”

Diana rolled her eyes, “unlikely. He’s untouchable. Half our listeners tune in just for him.”

A strange feeling rolled over in Anne’s stomach – something between jealously and distaste.

From across the room, Gilbert looked up from the crowd around him and caught her eye as if he’d read her thoughts. He winked.

Anne looked away quickly and busied herself with unpacking her stuff onto her desk.

A look passed between Cole and Diana.

“What?”

“Nothing,” they both said at the exact same time.

* * *

Anne got to work. The previous columnist had left behind a half-finished column on the new Pulitzer prize shortlist and the editor Mr Philips had left instructions for her to finish it so it could go to print with the rest of the paper overnight.

Usually, Anne would want to write in her own words, from scratch, but time demanded she just finished off the article that had already been written.

The office was a nice place to be. It was social – there was always someone laughing or someone to bounce an idea off if they walked past her desk.

Soon she was introduced to Ruby who did the sports column, Josie who covered fashion, Tilly who wrote all the love advice and horoscopes and Jane who assisted her sister Prissy in all the business news. She even enjoyed the company of Charlie and Moody were the duo who covered the radio night shift after Gilbert’s shift – she often found herself working late to polish articles and liked their sporadic appearances out of the studio.

It was a busy little place but Anne liked it.

Well, she liked most of it.

There was the editor-in-chief Mr Phillips, who insisted he be addressed as such, who seemed determined to undermine every decision Anne made. There was Billy, who wrote the crime reports and was rude every chance he got. Jane put it down to hazing, but Anne felt it was getting closer to bullying day-by-day.

Then there was also the fact that her desk meant she was within eye line of Gilbert Blythe – who, every moment he wasn’t on the air, spent his time peering at her from all the way across the office. She had caught him looking several times, it had become quite a nuisance.

She wasn’t sure what his problem was. And Diana and Cole weren’t very helpful either, often just looking to each other and exclaiming how out of character it was for Gilbert to be so interested in anything else but his show.

If he meant to tease her or distract her from her work, well, she wouldn’t let it. She quickly resolved to ignore him. This she learnt just made things worse.

One afternoon, during the lunch break in which the radio played music for the whole hour, Gilbert approached her desk.

“You’re doing a nice job of fitting in here,” he said as he perched himself on the side of her desk.

Anne barely looked up. She would not let him pull her away from her article on underrated books that she wished more people would read.

“Are you enjoying being part of the company?”

She gave him a tight nod, no more, but he took it as an invitation to lean over her and read what she was writing.

“Oh, _A Thousand Moons_ , Sebastian Barry’s new book––“

“No relation,” Diana pipped up from her desk.

Anne was intrigued to find out she was listening with such a rapt interest. Cole too.

“–– Well, I’ve read it… and I thought it was… well… it spoke to me.” Gilbert continued.

Anne continued to refuse to respond.

“You know… if you ever wanted to be a guest on my show… to talk about things like this––“

“I don’t do radio,” Anne snapped immediately.

She watched his face fall.

Really, she’d always dreamed on the chance of being on the radio; taking that next step to spread things she deemed important. But she wouldn’t be one of _those_ girls.

It wasn’t unusual for Gilbert to have women on his show. In her short time at the company, she had seen countless women enter his booth and fawn over him live on air, barely even mentioning the topic they had come on to discuss. Even Ruby barely got through the daily sports report without showering Gilbert with compliments.

It was sycophantic nonsense an Anne would never be one of those girls.

But Anne was sure she saw a flash of hurt cross his face momentarily before he hid it away behind a smile.

“Oh come on,” he reached and tugged on one of her braids, “Carrots.”

Anne saw red. She reached for the closest thing on her desk – a copy of yesterday’s newspaper – and whacked him hard across the head.

**Author's Note:**

> so fun fact this is genuinely how my parents met, hot air balloon over the radio and all  
> so fun
> 
> /
> 
> Thank you for reading <3  
> I was fully ready to stop writing awae fics and concentrate on my job, my own writing and my move to Virginia but turns out that's not really what the world had in store for me  
> I now have no job and will not be moving ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ thanks corona
> 
> the UK is basically heading for lockdown and I am bored... hence... this
> 
> I hope you enjoyed, more chapters to come... not certain on the amount yet... maybe 1 more.... maybe 2


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